Growing Up Cullen
by Twidmo
Summary: Drabbles from a hybrid childhood.
1. Chapter 1

June 12, 1998

Chicago, IL

"She's beautiful," Esme cooed as she nuzzled the tiny child's soft brown curls. Carlisle rose from his watchful perch on the bed, standing behind her as she rocked the sleeping infant.

"She is," he agreed with a slight reluctance in his voice. He hadn't the heart to argue when Esme insisted that the family take in the baby, whose origins were dubious at best.

Carlisle had brought her to their home knowing that the child would need to be cared for, but knowing little else about her. That she wasn't fully human was without question. And from Edward's interpretation of the thoughts from the now deceased woman that had somehow carried this mysterious creature to term, she was in fact half inhuman.

Questions lingered over the household like a heavy fog, casting uncertainty on the family's future. Quite literally in fact. Alice was having difficulty seeing the child's future, or indeed, the futures of anyone in direct contact with her.

With a quiet sigh, Carlisle placed his hand on Esme's arm peering over her shoulder. Her open eyes startled him slightly; she stared up at him with an expression of intense concentration that reminded him of Edward. Her gaze did not falter even as Esme stroked her cheek with the pad of her index finger.

"Carlisle," Esme said softly as she correctly interpreted her husband's tension, "can she really read our thoughts?"

He didn't speak, but she could feel him nodding as he leaned in closer. "Edward is certain. It's quite unnerving, to be honest."

Esme let out a quiet hum as she thought, and suddenly the baby began to toss it's tiny head back and forth, squirming irritably in the arms that held her. A small cry escaped her lips, but before she could muster a more robust fit, Edward knocked on the bedroom door.

"She's hungry," he murmured, holding a bottle full of thick red liquid.

Esme reached for the bottle as Edward crossed the room, eyeing the child cautiously. "Of course. Thank you Edward."

Carlisle caught her hand before she could start feeding the baby. "Actually, Edward, would you mind taking her for a moment?" Edward raised an eyebrow. "I'd like a moment to speak with Esme alone."

He shrugged and held his hands out, accepting the blanketed bundle with the slight awkwardness of a teenager meeting a newborn sibling for the first time. "She's made up her mind, Carlisle."

Carlisle rolled his eyes and then glanced at his wife. _I know_.

Edward flashed a crooked grin. "I wasn't talking about Esme."

Esme dropped to the ground in the middle of the small backyard, stretching her legs out in front of her and leaning back with her hands pressed against the damp grass. Carlisle had followed her out, walking several paces behind her, trying to form his thoughts into words.

"You don't want to keep her," Esme whispered quietly as he came to sit cross-legged by her side. When he didn't respond, she sat up straight and turned to face him. "Her mother is dead, Carlisle. What else could we possibly do but raise this child?"

Though she was baffled, and even angered, by his hesitance in this matter, she didn't pull away from his touch when he reached for her hand. "It's not that I don't want to keep her. But is she ours to keep? Yes her mother is gone, but surely she has a...father out there," Carlisle countered, though he knew as well as Esme that his argument was weak at best.

An immortal who intentionally impregnated a human - and how could it have been anything but intentional, given that the human woman survived the act of intercourse in the first place - would have surely kept watch over the child's carrier if he intended to claim it as his own. Esme nodded as if reading his thoughts; she could tell what he was thinking with uncanny accuracy so often that it was like living with two telepaths. He nearly burst out laughing when he realized that now he really did.

"Carlisle Cullen," Esme scolded, "you are not so simple that you truly believe that that poor girl accidentally found her way to your hospital."

"Of course not."

He winced and took a deep breath. The memories of the last eighteen hours flashed through his mind. A young woman with the same piercing blue eyes as the child she bore, gasping desperately as the child was ripped from her; struggling not to scream as if she were afraid – even when all was lost for her own life – to frighten her newborn babe. She bled out only moments after the child was born, but she held out long enough to kiss the baby's bloodied hair and, with her gaze fixed firmly on Carlisle's face, utter the faintest whisper. "Thank you."

As strange as this child was, the circumstances in some ways were all too familiar. Of course he didn't think it was a coincidence that the mother died under his care, and when Edward was by his side to hear her final thoughts, no less. Whether a result of his faith, or too many years walking about humankind, Carlisle was not a believer in coincidence. This unusual creature was sent to his family for a reason, he was sure. But he had to consider the safety of the rest of the family. How could they know what was to become of an infant who grew to the size of a two-week-old in the span of just a few short hours?

Again, it was as if his wife knew exactly what he was thinking. "It's not always for us to know," she murmured. "How many times have you said that in the last seven decades, Carlisle?" And again, he had no words with which to reply. "Who else will raise this innocent baby? Would you send her to a human orphanage? She'd spend her life in hospitals being tested for whatever causes her extreme growth. And what if her lifespan _is_ unbearably short? Does that mean she should exist in a vacuum? Absent love and protection?"

"What about the rest of the family, Esme? What if someone comes looking for her? What if we are putting the rest of the family at risk? We should at least consider their thoughts…"

"We are not putting the life of a helpless infant to a vote, Carlisle." With that she jumped up to her feet and ran back to the house.

Carlisle didn't follow her immediately, and when he did rise, his stride toward the house was slower than the pace he walked among his human colleagues at the hospital. When he reached their bedroom, he found Esme once again standing before the window with a small bundle cradled in her arms. She turned to face him, as he stood in the doorway.

"Is she sleeping?"

Esme smiled down at the child and shook her head. "Not yet."

Carlisle hesitated a moment, and then let his head drop. "Esme, you know I'd never willingly let harm come to her."

"Of course."

"It's just," he took a deep breath and crossed the room, putting his hands on each of her arms, "you are so enraptured by her already. What if she grows so quickly that she…" His words cut off sharply when he realized the child was watching him once again. He steeled his expression as he met his wife's gaze. "I am afraid that there will be nothing I can do, and that will hurt you."

Esme laughed quietly and shook her head. "Carlisle, since when do you need to be reminded to have faith?" She stepped forward, closing the distance that separated them so that there was only enough space between their chests for the infant girl in her arms. "I'm quite certain this little girl is going to amaze us all."

Carlisle inhaled slowly and let out a burdened sigh, touching his forehead to hers. "May I hold her?" Esme smiled and kissed his cheek as he swiftly settled the baby's tiny head in the crook of his elbow.

"We should name her."

Esme smiled. "How about Eleanor? Eleanor Elizabeth."

"Mm, that's pretty," Carlisle murmured, bouncing the girl gently and watching in awe as she yawned. He thought the name over in his head, _Eleanor Elizabeth Cullen_, and the baby's nose wrinkled. "Hmm. Maybe Eleanor is a tad strong for a little one. We could call her Ellie?"

Carlisle chuckled as her lips turned upward as if in approval and her body relaxed as sleep took over. It was only then that he recognized the blazing heat around his thumb – Ellie's fingers wrapped around it, holding onto him with as much strength as she could muster.


	2. Chapter 2

_A Few Days Later..._

Carlisle had just stepped into the enormous closet he and Esme shared, stripping off his scrub shirt and dropping it into the laundry bin when a soft knock came at the bedroom door.

"Come in," he replied. "Hello Alice."

Alice smiled and shifted her arms slightly, holding Ellie up so she could see. "Hello Carlisle."

Carlisle stepped closer, slowly stroking the babe's pale pink cheek. "Did she just wake?"

"A little while ago. She just ate. Edward said she was looking for her mama."

Carlisle blanched, dropping his hand to his side. "Oh..."

Edward had told him earlier that it seemed the tiny baby's dreams were rife with her memories of the night she was born, and the fleeting glimpse she got of her mother gasping her last breaths. Carlisle closed his eyes, fighting back the guilt that crept up from his belly whenever he remembered his utter helplessness to save the dying woman.

"No, Carlisle," Alice said, gently interrupting his internal spiral, "she was looking Esme." Carlisle looked up again, meeting Alice's curious gaze as he considered her words. After a moment, he watched a small smile spread across her lips. "There you go."

"There I go what?"

Her grin grew. "_Any_way," she continued without explanation, "here." Alice held out her arms, and Ellie instantly stretched her own arms out to close the distance between her and Carlisle, snuggling in as the slightly stunned vampire accepted the handoff and pulled her against his chest. "I told little miss here that her mama had gone out, but her daddy just got home."

"Ah," Carlisle murmured, mulling Alice's words in his head. He was accustomed to his position within the family as head of the household, and knew that at least a few of his adopted vampire children actually did look to him as a father figure, and he had fully committed to raising this unusual child with Esme. Yet Alice had used the one word he hadn't dared think of speak of to himself.

_Daddy_. Dad. It sounded so strange to his ears – a term of endearment allowed for small children who looked upon their fathers with adoring eyes. How often he'd seen other fathers with their children, fragile yet fierce, and the absolute essence of humanity. Fatherhood in the human world was an entirely different world that Carlisle knew he would never have a chance to experience.

And yet, here he stood in the middle of his bedroom, holding a tiny spark of life that for reasons he still couldn't comprehend had been entrusted to him – to the family he had built – to raise and protect. Esme's maternal instincts were evident in everything she did, everything she touched; a product of who she was at her very core but also the result of her having been changed into a vampire so soon after the traumatic loss of her own infant son. She was the only one among them that knew what it was to bear and birth a baby.

But for Carlisle, it was different. He thanked the heavens daily for tremendous gifts that he had been given through his ever-expanding family after so many years alone; but some days the striking differences in his life now versus the life he lead only a century ago shocked him to _his_ core. His responsibilities as father were in many ways simple – he lead the family, guided them as a group and as individuals when needed, encouraged them in their pursuits and counseled and supported them as they all worked together to live up to his peculiar ideology.

_Daddy_.

The baby started to squirm; he'd been so lost in his thoughts that he'd almost forgotten that his arms weren't empty. He looked down at her face, and studied her serious expression with some amusement.

"I'm sorry, little love," he whispered, "I got a bit side tracked, there, didn't I?"

She smiled and snuggled into him again.

"Hmm." He walked back to the bed, and snatched a small receiving blanket that Esme had purchase the day after Ellie's arrival, and carefully tucked it around the child as best he could and stepped out into the hallway.

Whenever the family stayed in Chicago, which had only happened a few times since Edward was turned, they stayed in the house once owned by Edward's parents. The small office that had been previously been occupied by Edward Sr., was where Carlisle often preferred to read or write or just to spend a few moments alone with his thoughts.

Carlisle walked down the hall, rocking Ellie slightly in one arm. When he reached the heavy wooden door to the office, he turned the knob and pushed through. He saw that Esme had left the window in the room open, and the delicate lace curtains that she'd hung around it fluttered gently in the cool spring air. He carefully slid the window down and twisted the latch to lock it in place.

He walked across the room to a small control panel by the fireplace, which Esme had replaced with a pellet stove a few years back. He turned the stove on and turned an armchair around so that it faced the fireplace.

"While we wait, little one," he murmured, brushing his lips over her forehead, "let's see how you've grown today, shall we?"

He cleared a space on the antique mahogany writing table and pried the baby away from his chest, placing her down, careful to spread the soft blanket out beneath her so she wasn't lying directly against the desk. In an instinctive move that was as much born out of his profession than as that of a parent, he placed a protective hand on her stomach to keep her from falling as he pulled open the center drawer. He pulled out measuring tape, and a small notebook. Closing the drawer, he smiled at Ellie, who studied his every move with wide, curious eyes.

Carlisle smiled and traced the curve of her cheek with his index finger. "First, let's see how long you are now, mm? Can you lie still with your legs stretched out?" He wanted to laugh at himself for speaking so plainly to an infant only days old, but as he pictured what he wanted in his mind, he knew that Ellie understood. She held her arms at her side, and her legs stretched out to their fullest length. She held perfectly still as Carlisle measured her from head to toe. He kissed her nose and wrote down the results.

"And now, your head." He carefully lifted her head just enough to slide the tape underneath, bringing it around in the front. "Excellent."

He held up his stethoscope. "Would you like to hear your heart beat?" The baby cooed and smiled and Carlisle held the earpieces against her tiny ears, pressing the chest piece against her for a few seconds. "And now, my turn."

He listened to her pulse rate and her breathing, though he could have checked both without the device. He had estimated her weight as well, which he could gauge just by holding her with the accuracy of even the most finely tuned scale. She'd grown just over a centimeter in the last day, which was a slight decrease from a rough average of a centimeter-and-a-half per day before. If her weight continued to increase as steadily as it had, she would easily double her birth weight within another week or two.

Carlisle wrapped the baby back up in the blanket, settling her in the crook of his elbow, and sitting down in the desk chair to note his findings. He started with his subjective observations – the way Ellie had reached for him, her intense expressions when she watched him, and her ability to follow instructions when it came time to be measured. He wrote down his quantitative findings, and pulled out a graph that he was using to plot her growth rate like his colleagues in pediatrics did for human newborns.

Her steady growth still mystified him. Physically she could pass for a three- or four-month-old human. If the patterned continued, she could easily be an elderly woman before humans of her generation would even come of age. Carlisle shuddered and sat down in the armchair by the warm stove. He banished the thought for now, remembering Ellie's watchful eyes and telepathic mind. A single tear slid along her creamy skin, and he wiped it away with his thumb.

"Shh, little love. Don't worry. It will be all right." He didn't know how yet, but he knew that it would.

* * *

**Now that Ellie's settling in, I suppose it's time she gets to know her new siblings, huh? ;)**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing. Sorry this took so long to update.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A little Ellie and Emmett drabble for you. Happy Halloween!**

* * *

_October 31, 1998, Sauk Center, MN_

Emmett was dead bored.

Jasper and Edward were off hunting, and Rose and Alice were upstairs organizing the spoils from a recent shopping trip. Even Carlisle and Esme were nowhere to be found.

It had taken a good deal of convincing from Alice, but she talked them into getting away for a few days leaving Ellie in the care of her siblings. The little sprite woke up early that day, and was now holed up in Carlisle's study reading.

Everyday before Carlisle left for work at the local hospital, he would pull a stack of books from the shelves in his office and left them on the end table by the large leather sofa for Ellie to peruse as she wished. This was a compromise they had agreed upon shortly before the family left Chicago at the end of the summer - in turn, Ellie agreed to stop climbing the shelves in search of texts in his collection that piqued her interest. Sometimes, she would bring the books down so she could freely interrogate whoever was around with whatever questions popped into her mind. Other days, like today, she would curl up on her father's couch and read quietly for hours.

Emmett sighed and flipped on the television, flipping through the channels. He stopped when he found a college football game; it didn't matter much who was playing, he was quickly absorbed in the match-up on screen. He didn't notice Ellie's approach until she launched herself onto the couch; he caught her right before she crashed into him.

"Whoa! Careful!"

Ellie giggled and wriggled free, sitting down next to him. She leaned forward to get a look at what was on the TV and wrinkled her nose, flopping back against the couch again with a slight huff.

Emmett threw his arm over the back of the couch, glancing down at disgruntled looking child. "What's up Bite Size?"

He grinned widely when the nickname elicited another round of laughter from Ellie, who covered her mouth to try and stifle her giggles. Esme didn't approve of the endearment, which Emmett coined when he let slip aloud his first impression of his new infant sister. He only used it when the parental units were out of earshot, and Ellie knew it.

"You look like a shark!" she hissed through her fingers, still struggling to keep a straight face. Emmett's smile grew and he playfully snapped his teeth together.

"So, what's up?" he asked again.

She shifted so she was facing him and tilted her head to the side. "Did you know that it's Halloween?"

"Yeah," he answered, drawing the word out for a few beats.

"How come there are no pumpkins? No candy? No costumes?" Ellie jumped to her feet, gesturing wildly and turning in a circle. It was Emmett's turn to laugh, but his guffaw was silenced by a disapproving glare that rivaled Esme's. "Emmett!"

"What?" He shrugged. "We don't really do much for Halloween I guess." He sat forward and reached for her, tucking her under his arm and gently rubbing his knuckles in her hair. "Plus, I think it's against the rules – doesn't it say in all your books up there that the things that _really_ go bump in the night usually take that night off?" He guessed that something she'd read upstairs had started her on this particular rampage.

"I'm not on a rampage," she huffed, crossing her arms across her chest after freeing herself from his grip.

Ellie was so serious; almost to the point of looking distraught that Emmett was about to call upstairs to Rosalie. But before he did, an idea occurred to him.

"Hey Bite Size, wanna go trick-or-treating tonight?"

After an hour of convincing Rose and Alice that it wasn't a terrible idea for Emmett and Ellie to go into town for the trick-or-treating on main street that evening, Ellie was happily perched in a chair in Alice and Jasper's bathroom.

Ellie and Emmett spent most of the afternoon brainstorming their costumes. "I got it!" Emmett snapped his fingers a few times and pointed to himself and then to Ellie. "I'll be a ventriloquist! Ellie can be my dummy!"

"Hey!" she shouted. "I'm not a dummy."

Rose laughed and ran her hand through Ellie's hair. "No, silly, he's not insulting you. He means a puppet, like this." Rose closed her eyes and pictured a ventriloquist's doll. She opened one eye and squinted at her mate. "What on earth gave you that idea?"

Emmett grinned and tapped his forehead; a gesture used constantly by Edward. "She's like a little Edward. _He_'_d_ never agree to go as my dummy." Ellie laughed and jumped up, bouncing with excitement on the balls of her feet. "It will be great. She and I can have conversations and I won't even have to pretend to not be moving my lips."

"Yes!" Ellie clapped.

"Emmett," Alice cautioned distractedly. Ellie could see her searching flashes of the next few hours. "Don't you think that might draw attention?"

Emmett shook his head. "Nah, I will be careful. I've hardly been in town so no one knows me; and I won't be asking her to summarize War and Peace or anything. We'll talk about the weather." He winked at Ellie. "Or about the other people on the street."

"Emmett." This time the warning tone was Rosalie's.

"Relax Rosie, I'm kidding." He held his hand out. "What do you say? You in?"

"Ellie," Alice moaned as she drew precise circles on her cheek, "Stop kicking your feet. I'm going to smudge your freckles." She'd covered Ellie's already porcelain skin with a heavy coat of makeup that made her look almost as pale as her siblings.

She giggled and made a show of holding perfectly still. "Sorry!"

Alice leaned back slightly to get a better look. "Okay, just one more thing," she murmured. She carefully drew on a red lip. She'd covered Ellie's lips with the base makeup as well, so the drawn-on lips gave the appearance of a slight pucker.

Rosalie teased Ellie's hair to give it volume, waving a can of hairspray around her head until she sputtered a cough from the smell. Rose smiled apologetically. "Sorry." Together, they curled the ends of Ellie's hair, accentuating the natural waive in her reddish-brown locks.

Alice disappeared as Rosalie helped Ellie out of her seat, reappearing seconds later with a frilly black-and-white polka-dotted dress. White tights and red patent-leather shoes completed her outfit and Alice declared Ellie to be perfect.

Emmett was waiting for Ellie at the bottom of the steps, in a black suit with a red bowtie. He held out one arm, and Ellie, understanding what he wanted, hopped up, landing perfectly in the crook of his elbow.

"Why hello, little lady," Emmett said, tilting his head to the side as he looked at his "doll."

It was Ellie that struggled to control the movement of her face, trying to maintain a controlled composure. "Hello, sir," she replied woodenly. She stiffly turned her head toward Emmett.

Ellie was quiet during the car ride into town. Emmett parked and poked her arm. "You ready?"

She chewed her lip for a moment, and Emmett saw Alice and Rose exchange a glance in the rearview mirror, but he caught a smile forming on Alice's face before he looked away. His eyes shot back to Ellie's face and she nodded.

Emmett opened her door for her, holding out his arm again before scooping her up. Alice and Rose walked a few paces behind, cackling to each other as Emmett and Ellie charmed the local shopkeepers in her bid for sugary treats.

Two hours later, Ellie was sagging in Emmett's arm, which he'd dropped steadily lower until he shifted her to his hip so she could rest her head on his shoulder. "Had enough now, Bite Size?"

Her response came in the form of a yawn, and Emmett laughed and fished the bag of spoils from her tiny clenched fist.

As they walked back toward the car, Alice and Rosalie walked in step with them. Emmett slung his free arm over Rosalie's shoulder, pulling her close enough to kiss the top of her head. He knew that Ellie's arrival stirred up decades' old trauma and regret for her, but he was proud of how well she'd taken to the newest addition to the family.

Rosalie carefully extricated Ellie from the car when they arrived home, carrying her upstairs to the decadent bedroom that Esme had designed. She laid her down on the bed and wiped away her makeup, careful not to wake her.

"Trick or treat," Ellie mumbled sleepily, rolling over and tucking her hands under her chin.

Rose smiled and brushed Ellie's hair back, kissing her forehead. "Good night, Ellie."


End file.
